Putting heart and soul into football

 

SINCE making his senior county debut under John Kennedy on June 15, 2003, Alan Clohessy has had plenty of time to dwell upon his football career.

The Liscannor man is one of nine greenkeepers responsible for the upkeep of the Old Course at Lahinch Golf Club. While most of his county teammates are buried under the duvet, Clohessy is deep in silent concentration, ensuring that the putting greens are in immaculate shape. Employed at the world-famous golf club since leaving school, Clohessy’s work day starts at 6am and concludes at 2pm.

“If you’re out cutting greens of a morning, you’ve three hours on your own. You’d go back over games, like last year’s match against Cork from time to time. Sometimes there’s too much time for analysis,” he reflected.
Living in Liscannor, just a five minute commute to work, Clohessy acknowledges that his work schedule is perfect from a football viewpoint.

“It’s ideal for football to be honest. I’ve time to get home, eat and think about training. I can even get a snooze in. I don’t have to be rushing out the door from work at 5pm to try and get to training. It’s ideal for me as long as I get to bed in time.”

His early morning work includes plenty of walking while Clohessy is hand-cutting greens.

“We’re set at about 4.3 millimetres at the minute. You use a cylinder mower and a 22-inch roller. You stripe up and down the green. It’s one of the more enjoyable jobs. You walk six or seven miles in the morning doing it. It keeps you mobile. There’s plenty exercise and plenty fresh air. There’s no better spot on a good day. This time of the year it’s hard to beat it although there are days during the winter you’d prefer to be behind a desk,” he laughed.

Clohessy, who played in Clare’s 2002 Munster U-21 final defeat to Kerry, qualified as a greenkeeper having completed a Teagasc run course in Kinsealy, North Dublin. Growing up on a farm helped with the mechanical and manual labour side of his career which he doesn’t view as merely a job. Clohessy, who has a golf handicap of four, is as handy with a club in hand as he is with an O’Neill’s football at his foot.

“I’m not playing enough of it at the minute. The football is getting in the way of my golf game. I played a lot when I was younger. Pitch and putt and golf in the junior section. I’d say I was better when I was younger,” he said.

A very capable free taker for Liscannor and Clare, Clohessy has detected a link between how best to approach a golf shot and a free.

“There’s possibly a lot of similarities between a golf swing and free taking. The more I’ve been at free taking the more you’d put stock in routine. Even this morning I heard Leigh Halfpenny talking about it. He had a good day out kicking in the Lions first game in Australia.

“Golf is the same thing. It’s a repetitive motion the whole time. The more fine tuning you can do and the more repeatable you can make it the better you’ll get. It’s the same with free taking. It shouldn’t matter whether you’re 45 yards out or 21 yards out. I’d always try to hit the same free. You have to try and concentrate solely on that one thing you’re doing,” he explained.

On a broader note, there’s quite a disparity between the virtual silence of Clohessy’s idyllic workplace and the heat of championship be it with club or county.

“They are definitely two different environments entirely. The grass is the only connection between the two. There are times you could spend two hours on the golf course and you wouldn’t see another person whereas you spend 60 or 70 minutes on the pitch with the frenetic pace of a championship match. They’re worlds apart but enjoyable all the same,” he feels.

Now just a few days from playing Cork in Cusack Park, the veteran forward can smell championship.

“You’d notice a buzz come championship. We’re doing it a while now and it never gets old. Maybe a little bit more this year because we have an opportunity to play at home. Micko wants to win every game but since Christmas championship has been mentioned and championship is what drives him. There’s a different feel about it anyway from league football. There’s a massive difference,” Clohessy maintains.

Even with plenty of time to dwell on his football career, he finds it hard to believe that he has a decade long inter-county career at his back.

“It doesn’t feel like ten years ago. We had a couple of decent results under John Kennedy. We beat Sligo in Cusack Park in 2004 and we beat Westmeath the following year. We rattled Cork in 2004. You’d hope for that kind of a feeling again back in the park. I remember there was a great buzz that time. It was probably one that got away,” he surmised.

Sunday will be a mere day removed from the exact date in 2003 Clohessy first represented Clare in championship. He would love to round off a decade of committed service with a stunning defeat of Cork. And if Clare win, Clohessy could easily see to all 18 Old Course greens, singlehandedly on Monday morning, propelled by the adrenaline rush of victory.